If you are conducting research on vertebrate animals, you must have an approved Animal Use Protocol on file with the UMass Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) in the Office of Research Compliance on campus.

Your major professor may already have prepared a protocol and had it approved, but you need to make sure you have a copy.

• If one has not been prepared, you will need to collaborate with your major professor to prepare one and have it approved before any affiliated research
• The IACUC requires that all personnel listed in an animal use protocol who have contact with living vertebrate animals receive appropriate training for animal users, including graduate and undergraduate students
• Potential field technicians must go through the training as before starting work on a project
• The Compliance Coordinator conducts monthly one-hour classroom training sessions for new animal users that meet federal requirements. All animal users must take the animal users' update training each year on or before the anniversary of their first training
• All State or Federal permits must be approved and in hand before official IACUC approval

If you are conducting research on human subjects, you must have an approved Human Subjects Research Protocol on file with the Human Subjects / Institutional Review Board (IRB) in the Human Research Protection Office 

• Your major professor may already have prepared a protocol and had it approved, but you need to make sure you have a copy.
• If one has not been prepared, you will need to collaborate with your major professor to prepare one and have it approved before any related research.